Powerless
by TheBluesGuy
Summary: Buffy faces a demon who wants her power for himself.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The basement glowed red with a light that filled every corner, crack and crevice. Candles burned all around but it was not these that filled the room with light. The walls had a pulsing luminescence of their own, the power held within kept secret and contained until it was time; a time that grew ever closer. The room temperature was at an uncomfortably high level too but no source of the heat could be seen. In the centre of the room was a small circular pool with only a raised lip to keep the water from spilling across the floor. The surface was unnaturally smooth and still, almost like a mirror. However, this was no mirror, a mirror would have reflected the ceiling above when you gazed into it. The reflection here was of a face contorted in a great effort to get free, to escape its long incarceration.

The two men, their eyes fixed on the pool, watched the face grow ever larger as if it was rising to the surface. Then the noise began, an unearthly noise, quietly at first but growing in volume like some kind of large animal was getting closer and closer to a doorway, growling a warning to anybody who may be thinking of interfering with its progress; a doorway it knew would lead to its freedom and nothing, and nobody, was going to get in its way.

The surface of the pool began to ripple and vibrate, the two men covered their faces before the surface exploded sending water directly upwards. The water turned into sharp crystals as it flew; the crystals embedding themselves into the ceiling above creating a sort of crystal canopy which glowed white above the pool that had now turned solid. The power demon Argus, dressed in a black robe with a hood hiding the upper half of his face, his head lowered, stood on the dais before them. The two men dropped to their knees in a show of respect, or it may have been fear because this demon made the very walls of the room pulse.

"My Lord Argus," said the first man, "You grace us with your presence. We are at your service."

Argus raised his head slowly and looked around the room, displeasure showing on his deformed face; the walls of the chamber glowed a darker red as his displeasure grew. The two men bowed even lower, cowering close to the ground, each hoping that is was not he on whom Argus vented his fury.

"You promised me the Slayer. Explain yourself." The demon's voice was low and menacing with a gritty texture as if the shards of crystal had raked his throat and vocal chords as they were blown upwards to make the canopy. "Where is she so that I may feast upon her power?"

"The Slayer is very powerful my Lord," the man dared to raise his head a little as he spoke. "We aren't strong enough to defeat her on our own."

Argus let out a huge roar of anger, the vibration of which the two men could feel burying deep inside their chests. Dirt and dust fell from the ceiling as if the very building was trying to move away from the demon's fury.

"Please my Lord" his voice was almost begging and he once more lowered his head to the ground in a show of submission. "Spare us from your anger. We have a plan to make her come here of her own free will but," he gulped, "we need your help to carry it out."

The roar echoed around the chamber and died. Argus looked at the two humans kneeling on the floor at his feet.

"Stand and tell me."

Although his voice was now calm it had lost none of its authority. The two men rose up slowly under his gaze but kept their eyes lowered.

"We have brought you a captive my Lord." Marcus Trent pointed to the far right of the room near the wall where a wooden post stood reaching from floor to ceiling. "He will tell her to come."

Tied to the post was a tall thin man wearing a tweed jacket and well pressed trousers. Argus gazed at him, his eyes slowly focusing on the captive then stepped from the dais. Walking around the post he inspected what the two mean had provided instead of the slayer. He stopped and faced their captive, lowered his hood and sniffed the air.

"He smells like a library." said Argus, pulling a face and making his grotesque features even more ugly. "What good is a librarian to me? I don't want a book I want the Slayer."

"He is The Slayer's watcher my Lord." Marcus walked closer to Giles and stopped. A wicked grin appearing on his face as he spoke, "She will come here without question if he tells her to."

"Ahh, so you want me to torture him until he agrees to the deceit." Argus laughed, "Could you not torture him yourself? Are you that weak?"

"No my Lord, I have a different plan."

"Speak quickly!" The fury in the demon's voice returned with his impatience.

Luca Trent then stepped forward and stood next to Giles. Clearing his throat, he turned to face Argus and took a deep breath.

"I want you to make me look and sound the same as him my lord," he said with a tremble quite evident in his voice. "I'll go and tell the slayer to come here to put you back in your, err…, confinement." Looking at Giles once more he continued, "He would never betray his precious little slayer because he already knows that once she is within this chamber the walls will absorb all her power and channel it into you. Her strength, speed and skill will be gone and then we can take care of her easily once and for all."

Argus laughed; a low, growling, evil laugh that would make most people tremble deep inside from fear by merely hearing it. Stepping forward he placed his calloused hands on each of them; one hand on the head of Giles and one on the head of Luca and closed his eyes. The walls pulsed with a strange vibrating hum and glowed brighter, Argus lifted his head and stared intently at them both. Giles closed his eyes and grimaced, not knowing what to expect, but expecting it to hurt. Luca kept his eyes open with a wicked smile on his face that made him look like a mad man. He was about to take part in one of the most notorious events in the history of the paranormal world and he didn't want to miss a second of it. He was about to become famous.

Argus spoke a quiet incantation in a language none of them understood and Giles started to glow as if he was about to burst into flames. At first nothing else happened, but after a few seconds there was a rumble from within the walls around them and the glow spread, slowly from Giles and across to Luca, disappearing into his body and fading. When Argus stepped back Giles stood in front of him still tied to the pole but gazing, mesmerized to his left at the person standing next to him. A second Giles stood there, looking down at his new appearance.

"It worked!" gasped Marcus.

"Go!" commanded Argus. "Bring me the Slayer."

The two men bowed and left quickly, happy to be out of the presence of the demon. Giles struggled against his bonds but it was no use, he was tied fast. He was trapped and about to witness, firsthand, as the chamber of The Power Demon took Buffy's strength, speed and fighting skill from her. With a Slayer's power as well as his own this demon would become unstoppable and, without knowing, Buffy would be powerless against him and there was nobody to warn her that it was a trap.

"Don't worry" said Argus, "The Slayer will still have her watcher. It just won't be you." He laughed, loud and confidently, turned and stepped back onto his dais. Holding out his arms the walls pulsed and glowed bright. "My trap is set. The Slayer will come looking for me and she will find me. I will absorb her power." He turned to face Giles, "Then, she will die."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Bronze, the most popular nightclub in Sunnydale, was packed with people, with more outside lining the pavement hoping to get in. Posters, advertising a local rock group playing that night, had been displayed all over the town for the last few weeks and everybody had been talking about it. The atmosphere inside the club had an excited buzz, smoke from the stage effects darkened the room, the lights and lasers danced about making patterns above the heads of the crowd. The DJ was playing some of the most popular floor fillers from the current charts and people flocked to the dancefloor to shake everything they had that could be shaken. The bars were three or four people deep and the bar staff were being run off their feet trying to serve drinks fast enough to meet the demand.

Xander appeared from the dressing room where his friends in the band were getting ready to hit the stage. He picked his way slowly through the crowd to find a spot where he could get a good view. He didn't want to miss what the band had promised would be an exciting opening to the night's show. Spotting Buffy and Willow he slipped between more gyrating bodies to where they were standing; looking around as he reached them searching for Cordelia. She had promised to be there, but they all knew how much Cordelia longed to be with the 'In-Crowd' and be seen with the most popular people in town. He was more than a little surprised when he spotted her making her way through the crowded dance floor towards them.

"I was hoping you would make it," he shouted over the noise of the music as Cordelia squeezed uncomfortably between two overweight and sweating teenagers, the look on her face giving away the thoughts in her head.

"Eugh! Do some people not have showers in their houses?" Cordelia visibly shivered as she joined them. "This is nice," she said with a careful look around. "I hope nobody sees me. This is so not where I should be."

Buffy felt her phone buzz in the back pocket of her jeans. Taking it out she read the words, 'Text From Giles'. Swiping her finger across the screen she opened the message.

"He's got to be joking!" she said, turning her face to the ceiling in annoyance.

"What is it?" Willow asked.

"Giles wants me to meet him straight away. He says it's an emergency."

"You can't go now." Xander put an arm around both Buffy and Willow's shoulders. "The guys are just about to come on, you'll miss a great night. Tell him it's your night off."

"Apparently I don't get a night off."

Willow leaned forward and shouted over the music, which had changed to the band's intro track and was starting to get louder, "Do you want us to come and help?"

"No. You stay here. He says not to worry you lot about it and it won't take me long." Buffy slipped the phone back into her pocket. "He wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Leaving Xander still complaining, Buffy made her way through the still swelling crowd and reached the door just as there was an eruption of music and light from the stage. The doorman said something to her and laughed when she was leaving, the music was too loud for her to hear so she just smiled at him and disappeared into the night, heading in the direction of Sunnydale High School.

The only lights in the building when she arrived were coming from the school library, where Buffy knew Giles would be waiting. He usually had some sort of large, old looking, book open on the table in the middle of the room as he poured over the ancient text. Sure enough, when she entered the library there was Giles.

"This better be important. I'm supposed to be acting like a normal teenager and jumping up and down with my arms in the air at The Bronze."

Giles had a strange look about him and he seemed to be a little nervous. Buffy had never seen him like this before so figured that it must be something particularly bad. She reached the table and lifted herself up onto it to sit next to the open book.

"What have you got for me tonight that couldn't wait until I had finished enjoying myself for a change. That is without battling to the death with some crazed vampire or smelly disgusting demon?"

Giles pointed to the open book next to her. His hands were sweating and he had a slight tremble in his voice when he spoke.

"This demon," he said, nodding at the open page. "Somebody has summoned him from his incarceration and he has just taken two small children captive. He is holding them over at the new antique shop in town. There's a disused basement beneath it and you can get in through a door behind the workshop; it will be unlocked."

"That's it?" Buffy looked puzzled. "A demon has returned and taken two kids prisoner so go and sort it out? Don't you normally give me some details and warn me to be careful?"

"He'll still be weak while he prepares for their sacrifice." Giles continued, still looking a little nervous. "If we act quickly you can save them, take care of him and be back with your friends in no time."

"They're your friends too Giles. You can use their names." Buffy couldn't understand why Giles was acting so strange but she figured the kidnap of two children would be enough to affect anybody. "How did you find out about him and discover where he was holding up?"

"Oh, there's no time to explain now." Giles made a dismissing gesture with his hand. "I'll tell you all about it when you bring those two poor little children back here." Giles walked quickly to the door and held it open. "Go, quickly. You don't have much time."

He ushered Buffy out before she could ask anything else. She managed to grab a couple of wooden stakes from the desk drawer near the door as he practically pushed her out of the library.

"Okay, okay, I get the idea, I have to go. Just let me get some weapons will you."

Once in the hallway Buffy started to run and was soon out of the front doors. Giles watched her disappear and a grin slowly spread across his face.

"Goodbye Slayer." he said quietly to himself. "It was nice knowing you."

Once out of the school Buffy made her way towards the new antiques shop, hoping that she would be in time to save the two children. This demon must be one evil individual to target little ones. No wonder Giles had taken it upon himself to find out where they were being held. He had never done that before and had always left it to Buffy to figure out where the lairs and hideouts were. There was no time to loose so she cut through the graveyard, the antiques shop backed onto on the far side.

One person that she didn't count on running into on her way was Spike, a vampire who had caused her no end of trouble this year. He and two of his new henchmen stepped out from behind a large tombstone as she approached, blocking her path.

"Well what do we have here guys?" Spike asked. "Out for a little night time exercise are we?"

"Spike! I don't have time for this. I'm in a hurry, sorry."

"But we never get anytime to play anymore. You're always dashing off somewhere to stop an apocalypse or just to be an annoying little gate crasher." He turned to the two vampires next to him and smiled. "I think she should stay and chat for a while. Don't you?"

The two, large muscled, vampires parted and walked to stand either side of Buffy, looking at her with hungry expressions on their grotesque faces.

"I really don't have time for this Spike. Now I can stop by on my way home and kick your butts later if you want me to, but right now I need to be somewhere"

"Sorry," said Spike with just a hint of sarcasm. "I promised these two they could taste a Slayer's blood tonight and they are pretty excited about it. You know what it's like, you just don't want to upset the kids do you."

The two vampires circled Buffy, showing unusually large fangs and rolling up their sleeves ready for a fight. Buffy didn't need a sixth sense to know that there was no way she was going to get out of this without a battle so, holding a wooden stake in one hand she started to maneuver herself into a more open area.

"Stop dancing with her," shouted Spike. "You aren't on a date you know."

The vampire to her right attacked first and Buffy kicked out to her side planting a foot squarely into his chest. The vampire was sent crashing into a nearby tree and fell to the ground dazed. Before Buffy could turn and face the other vampire he moved in and grabbed her by the arm. Before Buffy could do anything the vampire swung her round in the air, slamming her hard into another tree opposite. All the air was knocked out of her and she lay on the ground panting and holding her side. The wooden stake from her hand had disappeared into the bushes leaving her unarmed. She felt herself being lifted up by one leg and held, upside down in the air.

Spike appeared in front of her standing with his arms behind his back and the other vampire at his side.

"Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. I told these two that you would put up a good fight. You disappoint me. That was too easy." Shaking his head Spike turned and walked away. "She's all yours guys. Enjoy the meal," he shouted as he disappeared.

P age 3 of 3


End file.
